British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
